参议员乔什·霍利（共和党，密苏里州）指控安东尼·福奇博士在新冠疫情期间动用由纳税人资助的工作人员，追逐超过100万美元的个人现金奖项；福奇则在多次援引第五修正案的情况下，拒绝回应这些指控。

这场交锋发生在周三一场火药味十足的听证会上。前白宫新冠顾问在参议员兰德·保罗（共和党，肯塔基州）的传票要求下出席由共和党主导的委员会。此次听证会也处在国会对疫情时期决策以及公共资源使用进行更广泛审查的背景之下，霍利不断追问福奇，联邦雇员是否曾在政府仍在应对公共卫生危机时被指派协助申请奖项。

霍利表示，福奇曾指示联邦雇员帮助他争取丰厚奖项，而当时数百万美国人正受到疫情影响。

"You were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally, cash prizes totaling over $1 million," Hawley said. "You did all of that during the pandemic, didn't you?"

福奇没有作答，而是一再回应："On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution."

随后，霍利引用了他所称的福奇团队内部邮件，其中包括一封来自前幕僚长 Greg Folkers 的邮件，内容涉及 Dan David Prize 的提名。据霍利称，这封邮件要求联邦雇员通过提供描述其疫情应对的文字，来加强福奇提名材料中与 COVID-19 相关的部分。

"We're working on this nomination for the Dan David Award for Fauci," Hawley read from the email. "We need to beef up the COVID part."

霍利称，Dan David Award 附带 900,000 美元现金奖金，并指控福奇动用联邦雇员帮助获得该奖项。他还指控福奇利用政府工作人员和资源，寻求至少另外八项现金奖项，包括来自 Partnership for Public Service、Adelson Prize、Smithsonian Institution、National Academy of Medicine 和 CDC Foundation 的荣誉。

"In fact, you turned your staff into a full-time application machine," Hawley said. "You actually wrote to people and said, 'Do you think maybe I'd qualify?'"

霍利进一步指称，福奇在政府工作时间内动用了八名不同的联邦雇员协助准备奖项申请，并询问这些说法是否属实。

福奇再次拒绝回答，援引其免于自证其罪的第五修正案权利；在整个听证过程中，他这样做了100多次。

尽管前总统 Joe Biden 已向这位退休传染病专家授予总统赦免，批评者认为，如果他在宣誓作证时作伪证，仍可能面临起诉。

在开场陈述中，福奇指责保罗对“calling for my prosecution”有“obvious obsession”。

"The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote," he said.

霍利告诉 FOX Business，因获得赦免，福奇在第五修正案下“has zero rights”。

"He got rich while people were dying," Hawley said. "He used federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes. He needs to answer for it."

福奇表示，他是在律师建议下援引第五修正案，并承认这样做对他来说很困难。